Lenten Writing Project Reboot 2020! Writers' Reflections in the Wilderness of Lent
Words of Faith
Spirit to Spirit Writing Project
The word Lentcomes from an old English word meaning lengthening of days. In Christianity, it refers to the time before Easter, traditionally observed through repentance and learning. It's a season to be intentional about changing and growing. Some people give up items to create space and time for new life and habits to grow. Instead of giving something up, I invite you to try to commit to answering these writing prompts each of the 40 days of Lent. The discipline it takes to set aside time each day to reflect and write about God and your relationship with spirituality is a journey that you will emerge from with a renewed spirit. Every writer has their own special voice to add to this project, whether poetry, prose, essay, thoughts, lists, or through comments, prayer, and encouragement.
How do I participate? Each day, a writing prompt will be posted. A prompt is a question or statement that is meant to inspire your thoughts in whatever genre you feel moved to write. Post your reflections as a comment under each day's prompt (for further instructions, see 'How To Post' on the right side of the page). It is up to you if you write, read, or pray along with us each of the 40 days of Lent or just drop in from time to time when the spirit moves you to participate. Writing regularly is a discipline that many writers struggle with and this is a way to involve that discipline as a Lenten practice. Through writing and leaving encouraging words for others in this project, we become a supportive spiritual writing community
Friday, April 3, 2015
Good Friday Reflections
Use this link to a chant of Kyrie Eleison to reflect on Good Friday with your writing
Chant from Georgia in the Caucasus. Christianity brought there by St. Nino, a lady in 330 AD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZCLi0-Gzag. eulogia Xristou
Good Friday On the way to driving my kids to school today, I mentioned (like any good faith formation-oriented parent) that it was Good Friday, and that it was the day that we remembered that Jesus died on the cross (yes, I realize it was presented as a bit of an afterthought). My oldest responded with a Camp Lutherwood song, “But he didn’t stay dead, oh no he couldn’t stay dead – My God is a radical God…yeah!”. True dat. I tend to be afraid to share all the pomp and circumstance of Good Friday with my kids because I know that they are more literal than an adult and I don’t want them to buy into the glorification of the violence in this day. I get it that Jesus was killed in a horrible way and that he “died for our sins”, but it doesn’t quite sit right with me as it is told – God sends God’s son into an abusive world to be killed in order to fulfill a prophecy and save us from our horrible sins. I take a little note from children, who even when participating in the story of Good Friday – in whatever way it is presented – they always seem to take it in with an eye on Easter. I think that’s how we should be. Later, I listened to NPR in the car by myself and they talked about the Germanwings plane accident. A co-pilot apparently locked the pilot out of the cockpit and crashed the plane with more than 100 people into the French Alps. I’m sure you’ve heard the story as it is unfolding. I didn’t have the heart to add that information to my already well-formed trepidation about flying by thinking about it. I didn’t want to do that to myself. But I did. I realized that really, we are completely dependent on the decisions of the pilots each flight we take. Any pilot at any time could crash the plane into something. A few have, so we have proof of that. The reason we don’t is – at the basic level – the pilot knows that this would be a bad decision. But what if they don’t? We have to trust that they have like-minded goals to us, the passengers, with each flight. By that logic, we should take the human element – whim, really – out of the equation. Why not have automatic flights? Why not have computers or robots run each flight to take out the possibility of a bad decision based on emotion or mental illness or whatever inspires plane-crashing madness. Here’s why. When things don’t go according to plan, people creatively think of solutions. When there is a human element like sadness, worry, people going into labor on a flight, people dying on a flight, etc. etc. and they have a human need, a computer can’t make that judgment call or have the motivation to think of a creative workaround. That’s a lot like the challenge of free will that God gave to us from the very beginning. Why did God give us free will? Free will is one of the things which led to something as horrific as Jesus’ death. Even though it fulfilled a prophecy, why? And I never count myself out of that crowd who welcomed Jesus on Palm Sunday and turned on him by Good Friday. I am fully capable of that kind of rage at misunderstanding something as complicated as Love. Love is in this equation. When Jesus was crucified, he “didn’t stay dead” as the song went. We have free will to make bad decisions, but that’s when God resets us to Easter. Love always wins in the end, and it demonstrates the power of love – the power of God, to be able to reset our stupid decisions to Love. It comes eventually, though we may have to wait even as long as our whole lives to see it. But God isn’t bound to our time and space, she works in her own time. And she always resets our mess back to Easter in the end.
(Pilots in this country are selected for their skills and their sense of duty. It is a matter of pride as well. Self confidence too. ) I like your reflection on free will..Doug
Jesus told the disciples they couldn’t go with him and warned Peter to stop insisting he not go, And swear to never leave him. Jesus said they would all leave him and Peter would deny him. Jesus restored the ear of the soldier Peter had cut off Jesus said he would see them later. (Sometimes, even now before protest demonstrations, some are designated in advance to be the ones arrested.) What if the followers of Jesus had insisted on being arrested as well? Of course, the Romans would agree. They were under orders to keep these troublesome Jews under control, to squelch anything that might incite them to rebel against Roman rule. Of course the religious leaders wanted to protect their own privileged, protected status and get rid of anyone exposing their corruption. What if the disciples and others who had been following Jesus had all been killed? Who would have gone to the far reaches of the world with The Gospel? Why were the women not afraid of being arrested? Why did they stay until Jesus was laid to rest And go immediately to take care of his body only worrying about who would roll away the stone? The attitude was probably that the women could do no harm, They wouldn’t be listened to; they couldn’t take up arms against the status quo or would easily be silenced. Perhaps we do spend too much time blaming Peter and the other men for fleeing and hiding. It wasn't yet their time to face martyrdom. They did face their fates eventually, as women did later as well. But on this night, all went according to plan. And the world has never been the same. The Light stays aflame.
Chant from Georgia in the Caucasus. Christianity brought there by St. Nino, a lady in 330 AD.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZCLi0-Gzag.
eulogia Xristou
Doug
Gently embracing the One,
ReplyDeleteFace open to catch the dying breath.
Love lives again.
Good Friday
ReplyDeleteOn the way to driving my kids to school today, I mentioned (like any good faith formation-oriented parent) that it was Good Friday, and that it was the day that we remembered that Jesus died on the cross (yes, I realize it was presented as a bit of an afterthought). My oldest responded with a Camp Lutherwood song, “But he didn’t stay dead, oh no he couldn’t stay dead – My God is a radical God…yeah!”. True dat.
I tend to be afraid to share all the pomp and circumstance of Good Friday with my kids because I know that they are more literal than an adult and I don’t want them to buy into the glorification of the violence in this day. I get it that Jesus was killed in a horrible way and that he “died for our sins”, but it doesn’t quite sit right with me as it is told – God sends God’s son into an abusive world to be killed in order to fulfill a prophecy and save us from our horrible sins. I take a little note from children, who even when participating in the story of Good Friday – in whatever way it is presented – they always seem to take it in with an eye on Easter. I think that’s how we should be.
Later, I listened to NPR in the car by myself and they talked about the Germanwings plane accident. A co-pilot apparently locked the pilot out of the cockpit and crashed the plane with more than 100 people into the French Alps. I’m sure you’ve heard the story as it is unfolding. I didn’t have the heart to add that information to my already well-formed trepidation about flying by thinking about it. I didn’t want to do that to myself. But I did. I realized that really, we are completely dependent on the decisions of the pilots each flight we take. Any pilot at any time could crash the plane into something. A few have, so we have proof of that. The reason we don’t is – at the basic level – the pilot knows that this would be a bad decision. But what if they don’t? We have to trust that they have like-minded goals to us, the passengers, with each flight. By that logic, we should take the human element – whim, really – out of the equation. Why not have automatic flights? Why not have computers or robots run each flight to take out the possibility of a bad decision based on emotion or mental illness or whatever inspires plane-crashing madness.
Here’s why. When things don’t go according to plan, people creatively think of solutions. When there is a human element like sadness, worry, people going into labor on a flight, people dying on a flight, etc. etc. and they have a human need, a computer can’t make that judgment call or have the motivation to think of a creative workaround.
That’s a lot like the challenge of free will that God gave to us from the very beginning. Why did God give us free will? Free will is one of the things which led to something as horrific as Jesus’ death. Even though it fulfilled a prophecy, why? And I never count myself out of that crowd who welcomed Jesus on Palm Sunday and turned on him by Good Friday. I am fully capable of that kind of rage at misunderstanding something as complicated as Love.
Love is in this equation. When Jesus was crucified, he “didn’t stay dead” as the song went. We have free will to make bad decisions, but that’s when God resets us to Easter. Love always wins in the end, and it demonstrates the power of love – the power of God, to be able to reset our stupid decisions to Love. It comes eventually, though we may have to wait even as long as our whole lives to see it. But God isn’t bound to our time and space, she works in her own time. And she always resets our mess back to Easter in the end.
(Pilots in this country are selected for their skills and their sense of duty. It is a matter of pride as well. Self confidence too. ) I like your reflection on free will..Doug
DeletePerfect Sense At Last
ReplyDeleteJesus told the disciples they couldn’t go with him and warned Peter to stop insisting he not go,
And swear to never leave him.
Jesus said they would all leave him and Peter would deny him.
Jesus restored the ear of the soldier Peter had cut off
Jesus said he would see them later.
(Sometimes, even now before protest demonstrations, some
are designated in advance to be the ones arrested.)
What if the followers of Jesus had insisted on being arrested as well?
Of course, the Romans would agree. They were under orders to
keep these troublesome Jews under control, to squelch anything
that might incite them to rebel against Roman rule.
Of course the religious leaders wanted to protect their own privileged,
protected status and get rid of anyone exposing their corruption.
What if the disciples and others who had been following Jesus
had all been killed?
Who would have gone to the far reaches of the world with
The Gospel?
Why were the women not afraid of being arrested?
Why did they stay until Jesus was laid to rest
And go immediately to take care of his body
only worrying about who would roll away the stone?
The attitude was probably that the women could do no harm,
They wouldn’t be listened to; they couldn’t take up arms
against the status quo or would easily be silenced.
Perhaps we do spend too much time blaming Peter and the other men
for fleeing and hiding.
It wasn't yet their time to face martyrdom.
They did face their fates eventually,
as women did later as well.
But on this night, all went according to plan.
And the world has never been the same.
The Light stays aflame.
It makes perfect sense
It wasn't yet their time... I really appreciate your stepping into th time with clear referents to our own. Thank you.
ReplyDelete